Tag-marking machine cutoff knife



Feb. 19, 1952 F. L. RIEGER TAG MARKING MACHINE CUTOFF KNIFE 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 Filed June 10, 1949 INVfJN TOR. W5 Z 1. BY [0 ,6 flu7 Mm $2 ,(rTaKMFYS Feb. 19, 1952 F. L. RIEGER TAG MARKING MACHINE CUTOFF KNIFE 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 Filed June 10, 1949 IN VENT0R.

Patented Feb. 19, 1952 TAG-MARKING MACHINE CUTOFF KNIFE Frederic L. Rieger, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to The Monarch Marking. System Company, Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application June 10, 1949, Serial No. 98,269

7 Claims.

This invention relates to tag marking machines and is directed particularly to an improved cutoff knife which may be used with multi-section marking tag strips of the type disclosed in my copending application, Serial Number 98,715, filed June 13, 1949, for a Marking Tag Strip.

This knife has particular utility on marking machines of the type disclosed by United States Patents Number 2,328,934 and Number 2,872,460,

however, it will be readily apparent that it may be utilized with other types of marking machines.

The particular advantage of the present knife is that it may be installed on a marking machine in place of the conventional cut-off knife and by this simple change convert a marking machine which is adapted to print and cut off only single section tags to multi-section tag operation. When used in connection with strips of tags like those disclosed in my above mentioned copending application, the knife acts discriminately .to sever the tag strip only between complete tags, whether these tags be single, double or triplesection tags. Furthermore, a tag strip composed of repeated groups of different tags may be used in a conventional marking machine with no changes or adjustments other than the mere substitution of the present knife for the conventional knife.

The improved knife differs from conventional knives in the configuration of the lower edge. The cutting edge of the knife has appreciable thickness, that is, the lower edge is not sharpened but has a flat, shear-type cutting surface. The knife is pivotally mounted and swings down between two shear plates which back up the material being cut. The cutting edge of the knife is not continuous but broken" into a number of angulated shearing sections. sections are so positioned relative to the pointof pivot for the knife that each one provides a progressive shearing action on the material being cut.

This knife is adapted to operate with tag strips which are characterized by a plurality of equally spaced feed finger notches extending in a line longitudinally of the strip. These notches lie between each complete tag, and in the case of multi-section tag strips are not only between complete tags but also on the transverse lines defining thesections of individual tags. The strips are advanced through the marking machine by feed fingers which are carried on a reciprocating carriage moving in timed sequence as part of the operating cycle of the machine, the strip bein advanced in steps, one notch per cycle. Another feature of these tag strips is that each has a p1u- These angulated rality of zones or hands extending longitudinally of the strip in which the material of the strip is continuous. The spacing of the above referred to angulated shearing sections on the knife edge corresponds to the transverse spacing of these zones so that when the knife descends, the material in the strip within these zones is sheared out, Thus, when the knife descends on these zones between the tags all of the material between tags is removed leaving smooth edges for discharged ags.

The knife is provided with a teat on its lower edge that is disposed between two of the above referred to angulated cutting surfaces in such a position that when the knife descends on the strip the teat engages in one of the feed finger notches, the teat being the same size as the notch. If the strip is not aligned exactly, so that one of the feed finger notches is exactly in line with the teat, the teat functions to inch the strip one way or the other into exact alignment. This aligning movement of the strip under this condition is minute and difficult to see during the rapid motion of the machine. But by comparing a tag strip cut by the improved knife with one cut by a knife not having the aligning feature it is readily apparent that the aligning action actually takes place; because tags operated on by the improved knife have cleaner cut edges than those out by a knife not having this feature. Further advantages of the present out off knife will be apparent from the detailed description of the drawings in which:

Figure 1 is an end elevational view showing a portion of a tag marking machine to which the present knife is adaptable.

Figure 2 is a cross sectional view through the mounting of the knife indicated by line 2-2 on Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view showing the knife and one of the shear plates of the pair.

Figure 4 is a side elevational view of the other shear plate.

Figure 5 isa cross sectional view taken on line 5-5 in'Figu-re 1.

Figures 6, 7 and 8 are diagrammatic views showing the operation of the knife.

Figure 1 of the drawings shows a portion of a marking machine to which the present knife is adaptable. This marking machine is of the type described in the above mentioned patents. In general, the machine includes a table l6 over which a strip of tags is advanced to a position beneath a printing head I I, this position being adjacent the cut-off station. In the operation of the machine the head and knife descend almost simultaneously, but the knife engages the strip before the printing head for reasons described below. The table is fastened to the top of a'frame l2 which is fixed on a base 13. The printing head is also pivotably mounted on a bracket I4 which is fixed to this base. The marking machine is cyclic in nature with the parts being driven through cams keyed to a common drive shaft indicated at [5, the printing head cam being the only one shown. The knife is driven through a crank arm I! journaled at the one end on a crank pin it fastened in acrank wheel as. The wheel is keyed to the end of the common drive shaft l5.

The knife itself is pivotally mounted on a stud 2| which is brazed to a piece 22 (described later) fastened to the table ID. The knife, in general,

is in the form of a bellcrank, with the blade portion 23 extending from the one side of the pivotable mounting and a lever portion 24 extending from the other side of the pivot. At the lower end 25 of the lever portion 24 an aperture is provided and this end engaged and pinned between the arms of the bifurcated end 26 of the crank arm ll. Thus, the knife is tied-in with the main drive of the machine and adapted to descend once in every cycle of the machine.

At the discharge end of the table Iii a pair of shear plates 21 and 2B are mounted. The inner one of these two plates, indicated by 2?, has a pair of guide holes 3030 which are adapted to engage over a pair of guide pins 3|. These pins are fixed in the end of the table It. The plate 21 also includes a pair of apertures 32-32. The knife pivot stud 2! is brazed to the plate 21 (described above as piece 22).

The outer plate 28 has guide pin holes 33-33 and apertures 34--34 corresponding to the respective guide pin holes 30 and apertures 32 in the plate 21. The two plates fit together over the studs 3! and are fastened together to the table by means of the bolts 35-35 which pass through the respective apertures 32 and 34 in the two plates and thread into the side of the table H] (see Figure 5). The inner faced the plate 28 is milled out as at 36 so that when the two plates are fitted together the slot 31 is open between them. This slot is exactly the width of the knife blade 23 so that the respective upper edges of the two plates provide a shearing surface against which the knife cuts.

The knife is made in two sections, that is, the blade and lever portions are different elements with these two being riveted together as at 38 in Figure 2. The lever portion 24 is bent out as at- 40 to clear the end of outer plate 28, the end of this plate being ground oif as at 4| for clearance also.

These two plates 21 and 28 are fastened to the end of the table so that the two upper edges of the two plates lie in the plane of the lower surface of the tag strip, this plane being that of the top of a platen 42 on which the tags are printed. The inner plate 21 carries a strip hold-down finger 43 that extends parallel with the upper edge of the plate 21 being spaced therefrom as at 44. This finger 43 lies just above the tag strips and serves to hold the strip down on the platen 42 when the knife is retracting after a cut.

The knife blade is divided into a number of cutting segments. Two of these are indicated by 45 and 46 and are at the outer end of the blade and separated by an aligning teat 4T." Inwardly 'of the cutting edges 46 the blade is notched out as at 48 with anothercutting edge 53 disposed just inwardly of this notch. The lower edge of the knife from the cutting edge 50 inwardly is recessed as at 51. The lower end of the teat 41 is beveled to a point 52. These cutting edges, and the teat, and the functions that they perform will be described below.

The blade unit slips over the pin 2! in a rather loose slip-fit so that the blade at the outer end may be moved slightly. The blade is held in place on the pin 2| by means of a spring53. This spring bears against the blade unit at its inner end and at its outer end rests against a washer 54. The washer is held in place by means of a bolt 55 which is screwed into a threaded counter-bore 56 in the end of the pin 2. A spacer bushing 51 which slips over the pin 2| inside the spring is provided to keep the spring in place relative to the pin. The tension of spring 53 may be adjusted by tightening or loosening the bolt 55.

The operation of the knife is shown diagrammatically in Figures 6, '7 and 8. In these figures the tag strip, indicated at 66, includes a plurality of equally spaced feed finger notches 6|. These notches lie in a line extending longitudinally of the length of the strip. The tag strip has three longitudinal zones or bands in which the material of the strip is continuous. Where these continuous bands join individual tags in the strip three necks of material 62, 63 and 64 are provided. The respective cutting edges on the knife blade 23 correspond in spacing to these three necks; that is, edge 45 corresponds to neck 62, edge 46 corresponds to neck 63, edge 50 corresponds to neck 64, and with the teat 41 being aligned with the feedfingers notch 6|. Each tag in a strip includes a header portion 65 to which are attached two panels 66 and 61. One of these panels 68 is made integral with the header 65, while the other one 6'! is separable therefrom along the scored line indicated by 68. This section 6'! is adapted to be torn out for stock control or other purposes.

One complete operating cycle of the marking machine is as follows: starting with the knife and printing head in the up position and with the feed finger carriage (not shown), retracted to the right, the first movement is that of the feed carriage in which the feed fingers indicated by H! and II respectively advance the strip 60. The

' distance that the strip is advanced during one a cycle is equal to the distance between two feed finger notches, or in other words, the strip is advanced one panel at a time. When the carriage reaches its forward position the printing head is inked (since this operation is unrelated to the cut-off knife operation it is not shown here) The carriage next retracts and the feed fingers lift out of the respective notches and slide over top of the strip. As the cycle continues, the knife descends on the strip. If a complete tag is in position to be severed, the three necks of material 62, 63 and 64 are beneath the knife and the complete tag is separated from the strip. When a score line 63 between two panels is under the knife, however, the header 65 is not cut and since the recessed shank 5! of the knife clears the lower marginal edge of the tag, the strip is not separated at this point. This operation is fully described in my above referred to copending application which is directed to the strip itself.

The aligning operation provided by the teat 41 occurs each time the blade descends on the strip, that is, each time that the teat engages one of the feed finger notches. The end of the knife blade may be moved slightly from side to side because of the resilient pivotal mounting of the blade. When the end of the teat 47 comes down on a feed finger notch that is not exactly in line with it, the blade is moved sidewise slightly in one direction or the other by the beveled edge 52 engaging the material of the strip at the sides of the notch so that the teat actually enters the notch. Then, when the beveled edge 52 strikes one or the other of the two shearing plates, the blade is again forced sidewise, but this time it is guided into the slot 39 between the two shear plates. During this second sidewise movement the flat side of the teat is in engagement with the material of the tag at the side of the notch and the strip is moved one way or the other into exact alignment over the cutting edges of the two shear plates. This movement is minute, being limited to less then one-half the width of the blade, but is suificient to insure that a clean cut is made each time that the blade descends.

Tags operated on by this knife are improved in appearance considerably over those operated on by knives provided in the past. It has not been unusual that in a long run, of say, five hundred tags at a time, that the adjustment of the feed fingers has got slightly out so that the tags discharged at the end of the run had slightly ragged edges. This adjustment need be out only very slightlv to cause the ragged edge. The improved knife realigns the strip suificiently to overcome such discrepencies.

Having described my invention I claim:

1. In a marking machine, tag cut-off means comprising; a blade, a pair of shear plates spaced to provide a slot therebetween as wide as the blade, spaced cutting segments depending from the lower edge of the blade, an aligning teat between two of said cutting segments, said teat terminating below the lower edges of the cutting segments, said blade pivotally mounted at one end thereof and adapted to swing between a position in which the aligning teat and segments are above and spaced from the shear plates and a position in which the aligning teat and segments are in the slot with the lower edge of the blade spaced above the respectiveshear plates so as to provide clearance therebetween.

2. A cut-oif knife for tag strip marking machines comprising; a reciprocably mounted blade, spaced cutting segments depending from the lower edge of said blade, and an aligning teat on the lower edge of said blade between two of said segments, said aligning teat terminating below said segments.

3. Cut-off means for tag strip marking machines comprising; a pair of stationary shear plates, said shear plates spaced apart to provide a slot therebetween, a blade, means for reciprocally driving said blade, said means interconnected with the drive mechanism of the machine Whereby the blade descends into the slot between the shear plates in timed sequence with the movements of the other parts of the machine, spaced segments depending from the lower edge of said blade, the respective lower ends of the segments configurated to provide shearing edges adapted to cooperate with the respective shear plates, and an aligning teat depending from the lower edge of said blade between two of said segments, said teat terminating below the shearing edges of the segments.

4. Cut-on means for tag strip marking machines comprising; a blade, a pair of stationary shear plates, said plates spaced apart to provide a slot therebetween as wide as said blade, said blade being pivotally mounted resiliently whereby the outer end of said blade is adapted to be moved sidewise a distance approximating onehalf the width of said blade, spaced cutting segments depending from the lower edge of said blade, and an aligning teat depending from the lower edge of said blade near the outer end thereof between two of said cutting segments, said teat extending beyond the cutting segments and having its lower edges bevelled, and means for driving said blade, said means adapted to swing the blade between a position in which the aligning teat and segments are above and spaced from the shear plates and a position in which the aligning teat and segments are in the slot with the lower edge of the blade spaced above the respective shear plates so as to provide clearance therebetween.

5. Cut-off means for tag strip marking machines comprising; a blade, a pair of stationary shear plates, said plates spaced apart to provide a slot therebetween as wide as said blade, said blade pivotally mounted at one end thereof and adapted to swing in an are into said slot, cutting segments spaced along the lower edge of said blade and depending therefrom, and an aligning teat on the lower edge of said blade near the free end thereof between two of said segments, said teat extending from said blade beyond the lower ends of the segments and having the side edges of its lower end bevelled.

6. In a marking machine of the type designed to operate upon a strip of single-section price marking tags having a feed finger notch between each pair of adjoining tags, with means provided foradvancing a strip one section at a time to a cut-off knife, and with drive means adapted to cause the cut-cit knife to descend upon the strip after each section is advanced, means adapting said machine to multi-section tag operation comprising; a cut-off knife having cutting segments depending from the lower edge thereof which are arranged in spaced relationship to completely sever multi-section tag strips only between complete tags, and a strip aligning teat depending from the lower edge of the cut-on" knife between two of the segments positioned to engage a strip feed finger notch each time the knife descends.

7. A cut-off knife for tag strip marking machines comprising a reciprocably mounted blade, a pair of spaced cutting segments and an aligning teat extending from an edge of the blade, said teat disposed between the segments and terminating beyond them.

FREDERIC L. RIEGER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 519,264 Little May 1, 1894 1,055,610 Church Mar. 11, 1913 1,112,076 McGorvin Sept. 29, 1914 1,112,607 Hainer Oct. 6, 1914 1,859,371 Laukhuff May 24, 1932 2,301,054 Meitner Nov. 3, 1942 2,328,934 Turher Sept. '7, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 7,104 France Mar. 12. 1907 

